Man charged with soliciting fathers for their daughters gets 10 years

A Frankfort Square man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty today to trying to solicit fathers to share their daughters for sex on Craigslist, officials said.

Brandon J. Bergthold of the 7700 block of West North Avenue pleaded guilty to one count of indecent solicitation of a child and was sentenced to prison by Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak, said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for the Will County state's attorney's office.

Bergthold, 25, was originally charged in January with two counts of indecent solicitation of a child and one count of traveling to meet a minor after a two-month-long investigation, Will and Cook County sheriff’s police said in January.

The other charges were dismissed in exchange for the guilty plea, which called for the "significant" prison term Pelkie said.

The investigation began when a member of the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Child Exploitation Unit was monitoring a sexually-oriented Web site on Nov. 30 and noticed an individual using the site to arrange for meetings with fathers willing to share their daughters, according Cook and Will County sheriff’s police.

Cook County detectives identified the individual as Bergthold and the investigator contacted him while posing as a father willing to allow sexual access to his 6-year-old daughter, officials said.

The investigation took a more aggressive turn when Bergthold allegedly began pushing for a meeting with the “father” and fictitious daughter.

“Bergthold’s demeanor changed,” Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas said at the time. “He communicated a sense of urgency in wanting to meet with the undercover officer and the minor child.”

Kaupas said investigators agreed it was possible Bergthold might seek out an unsuspecting victim “if we did not end this investigation.”

The agent, posing as a father, arranged to meet with Bergthold at a Will County motel, where he and other investigators took him into custody without incident.

Detectives executing a search warrant at Bergthold’s residence reportedly recovered a computer and other electronic media from the residence.